BECKLEY — Two more West Virginia-based lawsuits have been filed against Google and Facebook by news agencies alleging the two companies are monopolizing the digital advertising market, strangling newspapers by taking away their primary newspaper source.
ECENT Corporation and Clarksburg Publishing Company, which is doing business as WV News filed the lawsuits April 19 against Google and Facebook in federal court — ECENT in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia and WV News in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
The new West Virginia complaints were two of 14 filed that day by publishers for more than 125 newspaper in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Mississippi, New Jersey, Indiana, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia.
ECENT operates The West Virginia Daily News, White Sulphur Springs Star, The West Virginian and Hinton News in West Virginia, as well as Virginian Review in Virginia. WV News owns The Exponent Telegram, The Fairmont News, The Bridgeport News, The Preston County News & Journal and The Weston Democrat.
"The freedom of the press is not at stake; the press itself is at stake," the complaints state.
The complaints allege that there is no longer a competitive market in which newspapers can fairly compete for online advertising revenue because Google has "vertically integrated itself, through hundreds of mergers and acquisitions, to enable dominion over all sellers, buyers, and middlemen in the marketplace."
"It has absorbed the market internally and consumed most of the revenue," the complaints state. "Google’s unlawful anticompetitive conduct is directly stripping newspapers across the country, including Plaintiff, of their primary revenue source."
The complaints allege that Facebook and Google agreed to avoid competing with each other in 2018 and Facebook agreed to bid through Google’s ad server. In exchange, Google agreed to give Facebook preferential treatment in its auctions.
The news agencies claim that the agreement "cemented its (Google's) stranglehold on the marketplace."
“These actions are illegal and directly caused newspapers across the country, including the plaintiff, enormous financial harm in the form of loss of revenue sources,” the complaint claims. “This is a per se violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act which declares “every ... conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states” to be illegal.”
The news agencies claim they are direct victims of the antitrust injury they allege.
Since 2004, nearly 1,800 newspapers either closed or merged, leaving the majority of counties in the nation no longer have more than one publisher of local news and 200 are without any paper, according to the suits.
The news agencies are seeking an order declaring the actions of the defendants violate the law; that the defendants be permanently enjoined from adopting a practice having a similar effect; treble and punitive damages; and pre- and post-judgment interest.
The news agencies are represented by Paul T. Farrell Jr. and Michael J. Fuller Jr. of Farrell & Fuller PLLC in San Juan, Puerto Rico; John C. Herman and Serina M. Vash of Herman Jones in Atlanta; Paul J. Geller and Stuart A. Davidson of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd in Boca Raton, Florida; David W. Mitchell and Steven M. Jodlowski of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd in San Diego; and Robert P. Fitzsimmons, Clayton J. Fitzsimmons and Mark A. Colantonio of Fitzsimmons Law Firm in Wheeling; and Rachel A. Jarvis of Rachel A. Jarvis, Esq. PLLC in Clarksburg.
A nearly identical lawsuit was filed in January by HD Media Company in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia at Huntington.
Doug Reynolds, who is a managing partner for HD Media, said in a statement in January that they hoped other newspapers would join in the cause.
“We are fighting not only for the future of the press but also the preservation of our democracy," Reynolds said in the statement.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 5:21-cv-00251 (ECENT), U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number: 1:21-cv-00051 (WV News)